Hardwood Cuttings / Live Stakes - Native Plant List

Hello all,

I made this list for my own use and thought I would share it with you all. This is a list of native plants found in the South Puget Sound that can be grown by using live stakes or hardwood cuttings. If you don't know live stakes are where you take a hardwood cutting (requires several nodes) and then push it / pound it down into the ground with several nodes under the surface and at least one above the surface. Hardwood cuttings are smaller (generally) than live stakes and are placed in a pot until the roots develop. I tend to blur the line between these two methods and have just taken hardwood cuttings and carefully stuck them in the ground. I'm also experimenting with growing some species not on this list as live stakes - if these work I will add them to the list. I'm also trying to grow some of the ones listed as hardwood cuttings only as live stakes.

Native plants can be difficult to find in nurseries and it can be expensive to purchase them in mass. I have found that using cuttings and live stakes can be a very easy and cheap way to grow a lot of these plants. Live stakes generally need to be harvested in the fall or winter and placed in the ground as soon as possible. Hardwood cuttings, if you are growing them in a pot, can be taken throughout the year depending on the species and its growing habit. Live stakes are the easiest and I'm trying to use this method as much as possible. So far this season I have installed around 300 live stakes on my property. Most of these are willows but I have a few other types that I have also installed.

I have also purchased bareroot native plants that can be live staked so I will have a source on my property that I can easily take live stakes from to expand my plantings later on. Some of these are difficult to find in large numbers out in the wild so by purchasing them as bareroots and getting them going on my land I won't have to search for them in the future. When I do this I try to order a fair number (I planted 50 black twinberry as bareroots this year) so I have a decent genetic base to start from for my live stake harvests.

Be careful not to over harvest from any specific plant - I have heard that you should not take any more than 1/20th of a plant. Also, use clean and sharp cutting tools to help keep the main plant healthy. Also, know the area you are harvesting from and make sure it is allowed. I tend to find good sources of plants along roadsides (where they get cut back anyways) and from friendly landowners.

I have also used these methods with some non-native plants but I wanted to focus on the native ones for this post. Recently, I took cuttings from female seaberry plants and just stuck them in the ground - so far they all seem to be surviving and are budding out. Went from 1 female plant to over 20 if they all survive.

Here is the list (common name, scientific name, my notes):

Pacific Madrone, Arbutus menziesii, Hardwood cuttings and layering may work - not sure about live stakes

Black Cottonwood, Populus balsamifera, Live stakes

Pacific Willow, Salix lucida, Live stakes

Scouler Willow, Salix scouleriana, Live stakes

Sitka Willow, Salix sitchensis, Live stakes

Hookers Willow, Salix hookeriana, Live stakes

Western Yew, Taxus brevifolia, Hardwood cuttings

Western Red Cedar, Thuja plicata, Hardwood cuttings

Snowbrush, Ceanothus velutinus, Hardwood cuttings - nitrogen fixer

Red-Osier Dogwood, Cornus sericea, Live stakes

Salal, Gaultheria shallon, Hardwood cuttings

Oceanspray, Holodiscus discolor, Hardwood cuttings

Orange Honeysuckle, Lonicera ciliosa, Hardwood cuttings

Black Twinberry, Lonicera involucrata, Hardwood cuttings / live stakes

Osoberry, Oemleria cerasiformis, Hardwood cuttings

Mock-Orange, Philadelphus lewisii, Hardwood cuttings

Pacific Ninebark, Physocarpus capitatus, Hardwood cuttings / live stakes

Pacific Rhododendron, Rhododendron marcophyllum, Hardwood cuttings - has been over collected in the past so avoid harvesting from a natural location

Red-Flowering Currant, Ribes sanguineum, Hardwood cuttings

Baldhip Rose, Rosa gymnocarpa, Hardwood cuttings

Nootka Rose, Rosa nutkana, Hardwood cuttings / live stakes

Clustered Wild Rose, Rosa pisocarpa, Hardwood cuttings

Thimbleberry, Rubus parviflorus, Hardwood cuttings

Salmonberry, Rubus spectabilis, Hardwood cuttings / live stakes

Blue Elderberry, Sambucus cerulea, Hardwood cuttings / live stakes

Red Elderberry, Sambucus racemosa, Hardwood cuttings / live stakes

Spirea, Spiraea douglasii, Hardwood cuttings

Snowberry, Symphoricarpos albus, Hardwood cuttings - thinest (outermost) branches

Evergreen Huckleberry, Vaccinium ovatum, Hardwood cuttings - difficult to propagate

Trailing Blackberry, Rubus ursinus, Hardwood cuttings

Do you need rooting compound for the hardwood cuttings?  I've heard you can make some from willow cuttings.

Julia Winter wrote:Do you need rooting compound for the hardwood cuttings?  I've heard you can make some from willow cuttings.

All the ones listed above should root without the need for a rooting compound but I'm sure it would increase your success rate. So far I have not been using any of the rooting compound and I'm having fairly good success. I would add that one reason I'm growing a large willow patch is to being able to harvest shoots to make a rooting solution. I have never done that but it seems like a good idea and for more challenging species it could be a big help. I have also heard that dipping the cuttings into honey helps but I'm not sure how it compares to using willows to promote rooting.

Thanks so much for sharing this info. I've also been checking out the work you've been doing on your farm - it's quite impressive!

laurie branson wrote:
Thanks so much for sharing this info. I've also been checking out the work you've been doing on your farm - it's quite impressive!

Thank you! I hope the info is helpful! Little update on one of my experiments. I have some bitter cherry cuttings that I stuck in a pot filled with potting soil that appear to be leafing out. Have to see they get roots but if they do it will be another plant to add to the list. I'm excited about these because my Dad cut them and just tossed them in a slash pile for a fair bit before I got them. They stayed wet but still is a bit surprising for them to still be viable. So far 4 out of 6 shoots are showing good signs of life.

I tried the willow method for the first time this spring while rooting a variety of cuttings in water, and I think it increased my success rate. Unfortunately I didn't keep detailed notes or experiment to compare success with/without the willow, may try that next time.

At that time I didn't have any willow growing at home, so I used weeping willow from the village down the road. There's a spot where a weeping willow hangs over someone's hedge into the road, and is within easy reach. I always end up closing bits of it in the tops of the car doors whenever I park there. This time I snipped the ends off a few branches as high as I could reach, and then cut those into 1-2 inch pieces and dropped them into mason jars with water. I left the willow bits in for a few days until I changed the water, although I think you can just steep them overnight to get an adequate dose.

Stefan S at Miracle Farms has a YouTube video about making and using willow water.